Aludra
by R.A. Bailey
Summary: Aludra Major's comfortable, sheltered life with her single mother is ruined when her mother falls for a dangerous and mysterious man she absolutely loathes. Can she save her mother before the worst happens?
1. The Beginning

_**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Harry Potter, just my own characters.**_

_**Everyone read an review,. I do enjoy flames, so flame all you want. Just review it.**_

**_It depends on how my reviews are if I give this story a chance or not. If there are any typos just ignore them I'll fix them later..._**

Aludra Major was sick and tired of her mother. Yeah, she understood grief did make a person do strange things. But Aludra thought it was downright ridiculous when her mother burst in to loud, tearful, sobs at random. And it was even more frustrating to Aludra because she didn't know who had died, and her mother didn't seem as if she would tell her anytime soon either. And Aludra didn't like it one bit. Who could've been so important to her mother, when her mother's family was dead, according to her anyway? So, who _could _it possibly be?

It wasn't as though she hadn't asked. It had all started about a fortnight after she had left Hogwarts for summer vacation. Aludra had been up early, and when she saw the header on the front page ("_Harry Potter: the Chosen One_?"), she had scanned the front page and tossed it on the kitchen table, where it lay until her mother woke up. Like so many other people, Aludra's mother had begun reading the Daily Prophet all the way through, since Lord Voldemort had come out into the open. Aludra didn't bother. She didn't like the Ministry, not after Umbridge and the way they had discredited Harry Potter, and he had had been right all that time. The dunderheads. Bur she really hated Umbridge, with that evil black quill of hers. Her best friend Artemis had gotten detention with her and told her about it. Her mother was getting half way through the paper when she knocked a mug over. It shattered loudly on the kitchen floor. Aludra looked up, alarmed. Her mother didn't drop things or knock things over. It just wasn't her. Her mother had a blank, dazed look on her face, her eyes moving rapidly across the page. Then she had said in a shaky voice,

"Ill be upstairs, okay, honey?"

And before Aludra could say a word, her mother was up the stairs, slamming the door behind her. Aludra had followed her up and heard the muffled sobs through the key hole. And no matter how hard she tried to get her mother to tell her what as wrong, the most sufficient answer she got was, 'Somebody she knew died,' Her mother had most annoyingly took the newspaper with her in the bedroom which was locked at all times, and as Aludra couldn't open the doors by magic over the holidays, it was impossible to get to it. It wasn't as though she hadn't tried to force it out of her of course. Her mother running up the stairs crying was the result either way. And Aludra was quite sick of it. She hadn't nothing to do or anywhere to go this summer either. Her best friend, Artemis, went on vacation to France. She had offered Aludra the chance to go with her family and stay the summer, but no, Aludra had to turn it down. She didn't want to leave her mother home alone all summer and they usually had fun by their selves anyway. How she wished she would've taken the chance now…

So it had been another one of those evenings when her mother had had another crying fit, over dinner, when Aludra had been trying to trick her into telling her who it was that died.

"Mom, why don't you just _tell_ me? I'm just curious!" she had said loudly, when her mothers eyes began to fill with tears over dinner (that Aludra had made because her _mother_ had been upstairs crying _all_ day) when Aludra had asked if she had saw today's Daily Prophet, about the serious new protection they were putting over Hogwarts this year .

"I'll tell you when I'm good and ready! And If you don't care who it is just…._just leave it alone!"_

"But Mom,"

"I'm not going to tell you. I'm not going to sit here and argue with you either, Aludra!" But her words were drowned out by Aludra's frustrated scream. She felt so fed up and angry, words that seemed blissfully unconnected form her mouth, as though listening to a radio show.

"_I HATE THIS! WHY DON'T YOU JUST GET A LIFE! SITTING UP IN YOUR ROOM CRYING OVER NO ONE! IT HAD TO BE SOMEONE!_ " Aludra took a deep breath and glared at her mother who looked momentarily stunned, tears still falling thickly.

"You'd better watch that tone with me, missy!" Her voice got stronger and angrier. Aludra didn't care. She'd had enough.

"All you care about is your self, mother! What about me!" Aludra screamed, slamming a fist on the table shaking the dinnerware.

"My dad wouldn't do me like this!" The words were out of her mouth before she knew it. When Aludra saw the effect they made, she wished she hadn't even thought it. Her mothers face paled and lost its anger. Her expression went quite blank and dazed.

"Aludra, I'll be up in my room, co…could you...?" But she was unable to finish.

Her mother's shaky, tearful stuttering changed into a loud sob, and her mother jumped up, her hands over her face, and went flying up the stairs. Aludra heard the door slam shut, and dropped her fork with a loud _clang_ angrily. Why on earth was this happening? She was determined to find out who was in that obituary page, whether her mother liked it or not.

Aludra cleaned the kitchen furiously, accidentally breaking a glass, a china plate, and chipping one of her mother's mugs. She swept the pieces into a corner of the small kitchen, cursing her mother, herself, and the glass, mug, and plate, too. She threw her away her mother and hers untouched food, dropping the plates unceremoniously into the soapy water inside of the sink_. It wasn't fair_, Aludra thought, as she scrubbed the plates unnecessarily hard with a sponge the muggle way,'_ Just because somebody died, it doesn't mean she cant have a proper conversation with me without turning into a human hosepipe!'_ She took the wet plates out and slammed them on the counter. One was now sporting a long crack down the middle and was chipped in places. She took off the rubber yellow gloves, threw them on the table. She_ did_ wished someone would come get her, come save from her mother's dismal house…Maybe her father wouldn't have done her like this. She didn't _really_ know….

This was one of the only times Aludra wished her father was around. She didn't know who he was, nor did she usually care very much. Only because she never knew anything much about him. His eyes were gray though, like hers were gray. They had to be, because her mothers were hazel. He also had to be white. Her mother was biracial but still Aludra was a whole lot paler than her. Her mother was as stubborn with that as much as she was with that damn death in the paper but perhaps less emotional. Aludra didn't ask about him often, and she got pitiful answers when she did. Like 'When you're older' or 'I'll tell you when you need to know'. But she had gathered the fact that he had been in Hogwarts and he was in her mother's year, and he had been a Gryffindor, like her mother. So that was all she had to go on. And it wasn't very much.

The last time she had asked who he was she was about thirteen. She hadn't even gotten a real answer. She got a mean look from her mother, and was told angrily out get out of her face, Aludra knew what the answer was anyway. 'When your older'. Aludra didn't know any fatherly figures. Her mother had never had a steady boyfriend. They didn't last but a week, and when Aludra asked what happened to them, she said that it didn't work out. But, that hadn't been since before Aludra had went to Hogwarts and she was fifteen now, would be in a few weeks anyway. And, secretly, she had always been glad to see the back of them. They were nice enough, but still she'd rather not have them around.

Aludra stomped up the stairs loud, so her mother would hear her, and then slammed her own bedroom door shut, breathing deeply staring into the velvety darkness of her bedroom. She crossed the small room in four swift steps to a window with dusty purple curtains, and pulled the curtains back. The last orange glowing rays of light from the deep red sunset illuminated the cluttered room.

It was the smallest room in the house, but the house was so small it didn't really make much of a difference. There was a dirty wooden desk in the corner, piled with books, papers, empty ink bottles, broken quills, her much unorganized Chocolate Frog Card collection, an empty Droobles Best Bubblegum wrapper, and other empty wrappers. Trash, her mother called it; Aludra called it her stuff. Among all the "trash", there was a empty filthy fish tank and a copper cage where Aludra's large brown barn owl, Orion, was snoozing peaceful. A dirty full length mirror was hanging on the wall opposite the desk. The walls were an off white that looked more like gray. There was a bed right under the window; the bedspread was bright purple with gold stars flying throughout it and a rickety three legged side table was leaning up against the wall. Upon it, there were three photographs inside tarnished silver frames. As Aludra surveyed her room, the silver glinting brightly in the sun's last light caught her eye. She walked over to the table crouching down to see them better. She almost forgotten they had been there.

The first one showed a smaller, five year old Aludra grinning mischievously, one hand behind her back. The picture Aludra waved animatedly. Aludra smiled. One of her mother's long gone and forgotten friends had taken this one. Her mother was looking for her wand somewhere else in the house, and she had it behind her back. Her eyes drifted off to the next one. This one was more recent, taken when she was thirteen at the Quidditch World Cup. Her best friend Artemis Fairfax was sitting next her in this picture both of them outside their tent trying to start a fire with those Muggle things called matches. Artemis-in-the-photograph had given up and was now leaning against the frame fanning herself with her hand. Artemis had been Aludra's best friend ever since their first year at Hogwarts, when they met on the Hogwarts Express. Artemis was a tall black girl with dark brown eyes. She was slim and had long black hair that was usually swept into a ponytail. Artemis hated it so long, but if you even suggested that she cut it, she gave you a look that plainly stated 'Are you mental?' She could remember the World cup like it was yesterday. The Death Eater riot had made Aludra genuinely afraid of forests, especially after the Dark Mark had appeared. Aludra's eyes flitted over to the next picture. Just thinking about Artemis and the Hogwarts Express and Quidditch made her want to cry, she missed it so much.

The next picture was older, much older. Aludra's mother was smiling back up at her, while she was holding a small wrapped up bundle in her hands that was Aludra. Adhara Major and her newborn daughter.

Aludra never heard her mother talk about her own past. It was something that was never mentioned. It just wasn't talked about. Her mother's family wasn't spoken of; there were no pictures of them or anything. They were conveniently left out of tales concerning Aludra childhood. They had been mentioned once though, along with Aludra's father. The memory of that day came to Aludra's mind as though it had been yesterday. It was the morning she would go to Hogwarts for the first time. Her mother had told her about the houses, Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. Aludra had asked what house she would be in.

"Oh you'll probably be in Gryffindor." Adhara had said quickly and happily as she heaved Aludra's trunk into their car "I was in Gryffindor and so were my brothers and sister. And so was your…" And she had stopped suddenly and looked away. And Aludra had asked eagerly:

"My dad was in Gryffindor, Mum?" Her mother had taken her time to answer her. Finally, she said quietly so Aludra could barley hear her.

"Yes, he was in Gryffindor too. In my year,"

"I didn't know you had any brothers and sisters"

"I had an older brothers and a little sister but they're dead. Now let's go before we miss the train, you don't want to be late" Her mother had said crossly. And Aludra took her mothers cross tone as the end of the conversation and fell quiet.

In her room, Aludra sighed. Everything had changed in the space of two weeks. Her mother hadn't had a decent conversation wither since she'd been home for summer vacation. She cried uncontrollably over "no one". And for the first time since she had been eleven, Aludra was wishing to be at Hogwarts after only four weeks of vacation. Slowly, Aludra stood up and quickly changed into her night dress. She all of a sudden began to realize how tired she was. And hungry too. She climbed in to the bed, closing her eyes. Maybe, she thought drowsily, maybe this was all a dream, and in the morning her mother would be normal again, making breakfast as usual. Happy, Cheerful and fun as usual. Not being moody and secretive and…just …plain out _bluh_.

"Yeah," she said aloud to herself, yawning slightly as she turned over, facing the wall, sleep beginning to claim her. "She'll be fine in the morning,"

"Fat chance, darling" said her mirror softly, just as Aludra closed her eyes and fell asleep.

**_So here's the first chapter. Yeah I know kind of boring but you need to know this stuff. I've been working on the plot all year. It's very very good, you'll see. Feel free to email me if you have any questions._**


	2. The Boyfriend

_**Disclaimer: I don't own the Harry Potter books okay? Jeez, must youremind me? Don't rub it in!**_

**_Ta-dah! Wahoo! Chapter Two, earlier that I thought I d have it up. I don't even have any reader yet…well no reviewer. Here is the emotional crap. I like the idea, it has to be there but I don't think I wrote this well. Leave a review. Remember Flameslaughter. You cannot hurt my feeling. And for the Review depend on the rest of the story crap? No way! I've worked to hard NOT to finish this! _**

**_Chapter 2: Boyfriend_**

Aludra awoke to the velvety darkness in her, completely awake as though someone had yelled in her ear. Sweating slightly, she sat up her eyes searching her room for the source of disturbance. What had woken her up? It was _something_. '_Nothing,'_ she thought with relief, _See? Nothing there, you're just getting jumpy over nothing at_...…' But then she froze with fright. She'd heard something…but what could it be? Immediately, she thought of Death Eaters, and froze again. What if they've come to recruit her mother, she thought, now completely terrified. Aludra was sure her mother would never go over to the Dark side, she was too compassionate. She wasn't the type. A new thought calmed her. Her mother's a muggleborn. How had she forgotten so quickly? Where was her mother anyway? Was she still in her bedroom?

Aludra climbed out the bed and crossed the room to the door. Her hand was on the doorknob when she heard it again. She stopped dead in her tracks. What if she was asleep still? Maybe it was all a dream. Her mother always told her not to go to bed angry. But a very hard and painful pinch on her forearm, quite knocked down this theory. She stepped out into the dark hall. Nothing unusual. What had that noise been then? It sounded sort of like a door closing, but it was muffled. Aludra tiptoed down the hall toward the stairs, her panic increasing with every step. Her mother's room was on the other side of the stairway. She could run over there. Aludra took a deep breath, preparing to rush past the head of the stairs, but then realized how childish that sounded.

'C'mon! Are you about to be fifteen or about to be five!' she scolded herself furiously. Aludra started to turn on her heel and march right back to her room, feeling foolish, but then she heard a strange sound, a horribly familiar sound, which she hadn't heard all summer, from the darkness below the stairs. Her mother's voice. And she was giggling. _Giggling!_

Aludra had to use every bit of self restraint she had to stop from shouting out. Disbelief flowed through her. What was her mother doing giggling when she had been so melancholy and moody all summer? She crept nearer to the stairs, and crouched down so she wouldn't be seen. What was making her mother laugh, she asked herself quietly, and her answer came right away.

"Lower you voice Adhara, you'll wake your daughter" came a man's smooth voice from the first floor. Aludra almost fell over. A man? A man was _here _in _her_ house with _her_ mother? '_Oh this is not happening_' she thought. Then disbelief turned rapidly to anger and frustration. How dare she go and get a boyfriend, and she hadn't spoken to Aludra in weeks! What was _her_ problem! Aludra leaned forward and strained her ears, but she hadn't needed to; she could hear perfectly fine from the top of the stairs. Her mother laughed unsteadily and loudly again.

"What is she, drunk?" Aludra whispered to herself, quite appalled. Her mother, Adhara Major, was drunk? This was not happening, it just wasn't happening. Her mother, her almost perfect, nice, charitable mother, was _drunk_? Then, quite loudly, she heard a series of sounds that sounded sort of like….

"Oh my God," she breathed, her hands flying to her mouth in the dark.

This was not her mother. This was not her mother. Her mother didn't _drink _and...And _snogged_ men she hardly knew in her living room! The sound grew louder, and was followed, with more of that insane stupid giggling. An insurmountable amount of pressure was building inside Aludra. She was disgusted and angry. Her mother was supposed to be in her room, wallowing in her self pity, not out _drinking_! Aludra had never felt so…so…_mad_.

"Oh, Reese, stop that tickles!" Her mother's unsteady, giddy voice floated up to her, and Aludra lost what restraint she still had. She got to her feet. She could feel the waves of anger radiating from her. She was surprised she wasn't practically glowing in the dark right now. Aludra leaned as far as she could over the stair rail, and swallowed. Her throat felt as dry as sandpaper.

"Mom!" said Aludra loudly. Immediately, the kissing sounds ceased and there was one of the tensest silences in the whole of Aludra's life. Then light spilled into the room, and Aludra backed away from the rail, squinting down into the previously pitch black living room.

And there stood her mother, her t-shirt hanging off one shoulder, and the expression of somebody who just got caught on her face. Her dark brown hair was mussed and she had her arms wrapped around a tall man. The man had a brutal, heavy face. His eyes were dark blue-black, cold and piercing and his hair was white blond and pulled back into a tight ponytail. He had a muscular build, and as he looked Aludra in the eyes, she suddenly felt small and intimidated. And unlike her mother, who now looked completely lost for words and was staring at her feet apprehensively, this man showed not one sign of shame. In fact, he looked at Aludra quite gallantly, and seemed amused. But this did nothing to neither soften nor break Aludra's anger and rage. She didn't truly care; she never did when she was angry. She was foolishly brave and headstrong, so unlike her mother who didn't act rash and crazy when she was mad, or anytime else. Maybe she got it from her father….

"Ah, this must be Aludra," said the man bowing shortly and straightening up. His voice was deep, and it held a sort of commanding tone. Aludra walked calmly down the stairs, never dropping her gaze, for the man was still staring at her with a most satisfied and amusing look upon his face. She didn't know who he was, but she knew one thing; she didn't like him one bit. There was something about him…an aura of…suspicion, she guessed. But she didn't like him, not one bit.

"Adhara has told me so much about you," he said smoothly, yet his voice still sounded sharp and rough, like a slow growl of a dog. Adhara didn't say anything nor even looked up. Aludra finally dropped her gaze to look at her mother, anger growing more and more prominent with every sign of weakness her mother showed. Her mother still stared at her feet. Then she glanced up at the man, who smiled with crooked teeth in he thought was an encouraging, warming loud. But it did not in the least looked warming to Aludra. It looked more like a sneer. And Aludra realized there was an aura of danger, really, more than there was suspicion. Though, her mother didn't see it though, because she gave a smile back and looked at Aludra, however apprehensively.

"Err…Aludra...I…" Aludra glared at her viciously, and her mother backed down, and looked pleadingly at the man, who gave the fake sneering smile to Aludra, who in turn, glared at him too. She wanted to hear what they had to say before she started to yell. But she wasn't really sure she could last that long…

"What your beautiful mother is trying to explain, Aludra," the man said still giving her a cheesy smile that probably wouldn't fool a five year old. "Is that when she stepped out tonight, she didn't intend to be gone long. She was feeling a bit down, and seemed to need a pick me up. I happened to be out at the time also, and when I saw her, well," he said shooting her mother a sly smile with those crooked teeth of his.

"I was simply _obliged_ to buy her drink. I had never seen anyone so beautiful!"

_Personally_, Aludra thought amused for a moment,_ if that wasn't the corniest story she'd ever heard, she didn't know what was_. But Aludra looked at her mother who was smiling up at that man with such a look of adoration, her anger rose right back up again. _'She has officially lost her mind'_ she thought furiously with slight disbelief, _She's mental!_

Adhara caught the look in Aludra's eyes, and immediately began to stammer, her eyes pleading.

" Aludra, I didn't mean to be gone long...I really didn't, truthfully…really I didn't…its just that Reese had asked if he could buy me a drink…really I only meant to be an hour…" But Aludra shot her another look full of contempt and she quieted,looking at the so called _"Reese"_ looking helpless.

"Dear child! I'm sure you can forgive her this once," he said incredulously that stupid smile still on his face. "You, of all people, her own daughter haven't noticed how beautiful your mother is! I was quite surprised to hear she wasn't married, I was sure she would be! Don't be angry with her, I'd hate for that to happen."

"Don't _you_ tell me not to be angry with _my _mother! I have every right to be!' Aludra said suddenly, not really realizing what she was saying. She was caught up in her anger and rage, the anger and rage that had been building non-stopping over the last three weeks.

"Aludra!" her mother said, her voice sharp suddenly, but Reese held a hand up and she shut up immediately. His face seemed even more amused than it had been, and he smiled at Aludra, not the cheesy stupid smile, but a truly amused smile and he let out a short, derisive laugh.

"I see what going on here now! You're not angry your mother was out and left you alone. You're upset because she was with me! Because she has a boyfriend now? You want your mother to yourself, don't you?" he said

"I do not!" shouted Aludra, folding her arms. "I'm not selfish!" Her voice went up an octave as she said it and she knew how young and stupid she must sound. Her mother's eyes went round as saucers and Reese leaned in toward her mother, and said quietly, but just loud enough to for Aludra to hear,

"Don't worry, Adhara. It's common with children who have single parents. They think they are losing their parent to someone else. _She_ should've grown out of this buy now, though, almost _fifteen_ already! She should have realized you would've met _someone_ by now…."

"I don't give a damn about who you go out with," said Aludra coolly, glaring in their direction. "Especially if you go and pick up Death Eaters like," she jerked a thumb at Reese "like _that_" She didn't know what made her say ; it just seemed to her that he was worthy of that particular insult…

Her mother gasped and paled and Reese stopped smiling and looked furious, and dangerous; then a moment later, the fake smile returned,

"Now you don't mean that! You just haven't met me properly is all! I'm Reese Yaxley, since the subject of names was momentarily forgotten..." he said grinning, but Aludra cut him off sharply.

"I don't give a damn who you are!" Aludra shouted, and then she turned to her mother who seemed torn between anger and afraid. Aludra felt her eyes start to sting, and tears start to fall unwillingly.

"Why Mum? Why are you doing this to me? I …wish I could live with my father…whoever he is, wherever he is, its better being here, ignored with you!" Aludra said pleadingly, and with that she saw her mother's stunned and hurt expression, turned on her heel and ran back up the stairs. She felt Yaxley's eyes follow her all the way to her bedroom, where she slammed the door, tears pouring already. She looked at the photos on the little bedside table.

"What had happened? What had happened to us, to me, to her? Why aren't we happy like we used to be?" she wondered out loud. She received no answer and in one swift movement, she grabbed the picture of her mother and she threw against the wall. The glass shattered around her, making a noise that sounded like gunfire to her. Aludra sank to the ground sobbing as she never had. _That man was right_, she thought with terrible certainty, _except I don't think I'm losing her_. _I am! I am losing her!_ _And she is all I have…._

And this horrible thought filled her with guilt and stayed put in her mind as she cried, laying amid the broken glass and the waving picture of her mother. And eventually she fell asleep, but it was a long time before her mother stopped crying, as a cat cried in the bright moonlight.

_**Ha-ha! Good or fair? I love the next chapter, totally more interesting. Features a lot of this Reese man, who if you don't know why that last name sound familiar, you are not as obsessed as I am. Read Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince over.**_

_**Should be up in a few weeks!**_

_**TT4N**_


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